Linguistic Survey of India

Alphabet. various letters, is based on that given in Mr, Moore's edition

of Brown's Grammar. As regards the system of translitera*
tion adopted, I have in the main followed that work. No rigid system of translit-
erating the Towels can show their pronunciation, for the pronunciation of the vowels
yaries in Assamese even more than it does in Bengali. I have hence used, with a few
variations, which will be subsequently explained, the system employed in dealing with
other languages for representing the vowels of the Deva-nagari Alphabet and its con-
geners. As regards consonants, their pronunciation, though widely differcnt from that

INTEOBXICTION,

399

of standard Bengali, is fairly uniform, and admits of a system of transliteration which
represents the sounds of the language with some approach to accuracy.

Tlie Assamese alphabet is the same as that of Bengali, except that Assamese has a
separate sign for the sound of te?, which, when it occurs in Bengali, has to be represented
by a clumsy competition of two separate letters. I here give the Assamese letters,
together with their corresponding Boman equivalents. In old Assamese manuscripts the
shape of some of the characters (e^ecially those for ma and sa) are much more like tnose
of the BSva-nagari alphabet.

Vowels.

^ a d

^1 d

ti

^i

^e

v^

(U

^ u

^ u

"Q

^

du

nfi

IT*

^ IH

rir*

Ws ajyr

"BISaA

Consonants.

^ Aa

*l kha

f <7o

'n gha

^ na

Gutturals.

F $a

W?a

3f za

^?a

i£fi na

Palatals.

l<a

itha

^ da^.

> ra

¥ dha f fhi

1

^ ^0

Cerebrals,

^t0

^tha

vf da

ndha

^ na

Dentals.

npa

^ pha

■Hba

^bh0

^ ma

Labials.

^pa ^ za

IC^ ra

v\la

"^ u>a

•••

Semi-vowels.

»r «a, sha, ^a

? sa, aha, ^a

f[ 8a, aha, ^a

• ••

...

Sibilants.

^ha

• ••

■ ••

•««

*••

Aspirates.

Pronunciatfon.
Vowels.

The non-initial forms of the vowels, and the compound consonants, are the same as
in Bengali, and need not be repeated here.

The letter ^ a has two sounds, a short and a long. The first is that of the o in

' hot,' and the second that of the o in ' glory.' The vowel will
usually be transliterated by a, but, when it is desired to
draw prominent attention to the fact that it has the long
sound, it will be transliterated d. As a rule it has the long sound when the next syllable
contains the vowel i, as in kdri, having done, or n, as in gdru, a cow, rdnmod, a soldier.
It is also found in the past and future tenses of verbs of the first conjugation. Thus
hdl, he was; Mm, I shall say. Sometimes the meaning of a word depends on\the proper
utterance of this vowel. Thus, Mid means * black,* but kald, a leaf, a plan^in. So
mdhf a mosquito, but mah, a buffalo. In such cases natives often denote the long sound
in the vernacular character by a short stroke above the syllable. Thus, ^Nfti black, ^«fl,
a leaf. %% a buffalo, ^% a mosquito. The long sound has sometimes nearly the effect
of the first o in * promote * which would be written ScTf^ in the Assamese character.
Bronson represents it by an apostrophe. Thus ^*^.

The vowel ^ d has the long sound of the a in * father.'

The vowels ^ i and ^ l are used indiscriminately to express both the long and
short sounds which we hear in 'pique* and in *pin,' respectively. The question of
which sound is to be used depends entirely on accent, and has nothing whatever to do

400 ASSAMESE*

with the length of the letter as written. For this reason, Bronson in his dictionary has
entirely abandoned the letter ^ ?, and everywhere writes ^ L Hem Chandra Bafua
retains the distinction in writing.

Exactly the same remarks apply, mutatis mutandis^ to the vowels ^ u and ^ u.
Each is used indiscriminately, according to accent, to represent both tha u in *put* and
the 00 in * poor.' Bronson (hut not Hem Chandra Bama) hence ex<5ludes % u from Ms
dictionary, and writes only % u.

The Towel ^ ^ is always pronounced short, like the e in * men/ It is hence trans-
literated e, not e. Its sound sometimes approaches that of the a in * cat/

The diphthong ^ di is pronounced like the oi in * going/ Its pronunciation is often
weakened to i, especially at the end of a word, but this is considered a vulgarism. ThuSf
instead of hariha*ld% for doing, we often hear kariba4i.

Brown describes the pronunciation of the vowel ^ o as follows : * It is nearly the u
in " bull," but there is a slight verging towards the sound of o in " whole/* ' When o is
followed in the next syllable by the vowel «, the o becomes a pure w, and is so written,
Tlius, boley he says, but bulise, he is saying.

LINGUISTIC SURVEY OF INDIA

COMPILED AND EDITED BY

G. A. GRIERSON, CLE., Ph.D., DXitt., I.ca (retd.)

© MOTILAL BANARSIDASS

BUNGALOW ROAD, JAWAHAR NAGAR, DELHI-?

NEPALI KHAPRA, VARANASI, (U.P.)

ASHOK RAJ PATH, (opp. patna college) PATNA (bihar)

With kind permission of Govt, of India,

FmsT Edition 1927

reprint 1967

Priee Rs. 1250/- ($ 200) for the complete set*

P RENTED IN INDIA BY SKANTILAL JAIN, AT 8HRI JAINENDRA PRESS,
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